Chinese mettle

by E. G. Kemp

The spirit of service is strongly developed. In a three days’ public holiday the girls set themselves to collect money from their friends for the famine relief in the north. Their aim was five hundred dollars, but they collected double the amount. Christianity is taught as the basis of social service, as it is at the root of this fine piece of educational work. The whole staff is united in this bond, and they have already succeeded in setting a new standard among the schools at Changsha.

In 1918 Miss Tseng opened her school, under the guardianship (if one may so call it) of Miss Barnes, and splendidly helped by two of her men cousins, whom I knew as fine students in London, and both of whom are honorary workers. All the élite of Changsha were present, including the Minister of Education, the British consul and the missionary community. This was the planting of the mustard seed destined one day to grow into a tree. There were but eight pupils, varying in age from fourteen to twenty-two, a number which was increased fivefold in two years. As befits a Chinese school, it has a poetic name, I-Fang—“The Garden of Fragrance,” and the school motto is “Loyalty and Sympathy,” the two words by which the philosopher Tseng had summed up the teaching of Confucius some two thousand five hundred years ago.

It was at a garden party in honour of the King’s birthday held at the British Consulate that we met Miss Tseng last summer, and she most kindly bade us to lunch next day, and asked me to speak to her students. I had no idea at the time of what she had done since we parted in London, or even that she lived at Changsha. It was with a shock of delighted surprise that we passed from the hot, busy, dusty street into the cool loveliness of the garden. Our time was woefully limited, and I should like to have sketched all day as well as talked, but there was so much to see and hear that it is impossible to do justice to it in this brief account. If the Tseng family can leave their impress on the charming bevy of girls we saw, they will have rendered the greatest possible service to their country, and I feel confident that such will be the case. When I reflect on the state of unrest which existed during the birth of this school and the masterly way in which Miss Tseng has overcome all the difficulties of the situation, I find no words adequate to express my admiration.

In another chapter I have dealt with the student movement, which produced strikes all over the Chinese empire: not a school or university escaped its influence. Miss Tseng explained to her students her feelings with regard to the movement, and told them to reflect on the subject, and discuss it among themselves before deciding whether they would strike. She brought no pressure to bear on them, while very strong pressure was brought to bear on them from outside, but their unanimous decision was to “carry on,” and this school alone out of thirty-six in the city continued its work steadily and continuously, while the others—both boys and girls—were on strike. Miss Tseng wrote a letter to the Central Chinese Post, a paper published in English, which won widespread admiration. The editor of the paper wrote to her: “Allow me to congratulate you on the sane and patriotic views which you hold, and on your splendid mastery of the English language. Your letter is by far the best thing which has appeared on the subject of the students’ boycott.” When it is considered that it is written by one so young it is indeed remarkable, and I make no apology for quoting part of it, with the explanation that the mistress-ship to which she refers was one that she had been persuaded to accept by strong governmental pressure—that of the first Normal School for Girls: she soon found herself obliged to resign the post.

To the Editor, Central China Post.

Dear Sir,—You would have known by this time the details of the extraordinary developments of the student activities in Hunan. Perhaps you would allow me the use of your valuable columns to make a few criticisms and an appeal in connexion therewith.

The frank opinion, in Hunan at any rate, of every unbiased observer is that the primary wrong rested with the Provincial Government. As I have just sent in my resignation of the Principalship of the first Provincial Normal School for Girls—a post I was invited to fill by the educationists here only a few months ago—I feel I can speak more freely and with a certain amount of authority. The Government has neglected education so much that all the schools dependent on Government funds have been confronted with starvation and bankruptcy in growing proportions for the last two or three months. This absolute poverty has reduced the none too perfect education in Hunan to the mere shadow of a name. Satan always finds evil work for every idle hand, so no wonder discontents will foment.

The actual thunderbolt came on the 3rd inst., when the Government interfered in the burning of Japanese goods by students. There in front of hundreds of students and thousands of onlookers, Chang Chingtang, the Governor’s brother, forbade the destruction at the eleventh hour. He struck with his own fist the secretary of the Chang Chun Middle School, who had dared to show impatience at the abusive language that was being poured out. At the same time his soldiers welcomed the students with the butt-ends of their rifles. Then of course the glove was down and the students took it up. All the pent-up hatred against the Government broke out with redoubled force. A secret meeting was held on the 5th among the students, and by Sunday, the 7th, all the schools excepting one or two began to disperse, declaring that they would never return till Chang Ching-yao is driven out of Hunan. To-day only the Fang Siang School and our School are in regular work. Even the Yale and Hunan Yale medical colleges are given official “holidays.” The Government has succeeded in wrecking the entire fabric of education in the most masterly fashion, that even surprised its ardent admirers.

In view of the foregoing one cannot but deeply sympathize with the motive of the students, but their method of making a protest will, I am afraid, have certain undesirable effects. Etc. etc.

I was much struck with the frank, pleasant tone of the girls: some were able to talk English. In connexion with the student strike a master of one of the other schools said to one of the girls: